''The Crucible,'' is a 1952 play written by Arthur Miller as an allegory of Mcarthyism. The play follows a theocratic society in which the church and the state are one, and reputation plays an important role in Salem where private and public moralities are the same. In act one, the secret affair of John Proctor and Abigail Williams was revealed that led to conflict between John and his wife. Divorce was not permitted in the late 16th century, hence, the Proctors had to maintain their marriage causing discord within the Proctor household. At the start of Act 2, Miller creates a tense atmosphere of animosity portrayed by John and Elizabeth Proctor in their lack of affection, awkwardness, appraisal and guilt leading to affliction.

In the beginning of Act Two, Miller portrays the tension in the Proctors house by the awkward atmosphere between John and Elizabeth when John returns home late. John is desperately trying to maintain a light atmosphere in the house by complimenting Elizabeths cooking saying that '' It's well seasoned,'' although we know that in fact it is John who in attempt to conceal Elizabeths bland cooking, had seasoned it himself. The author makes the audience feel the lack of natural affection between the Proctors by their forced attempts to please each other. Throughout their conversation, John tells Elizabeth that he is planning to buy George Jacobs heifer, saying '' I mean to please you Elizabeth,'' as he tries to mend their relationship and seek her forgiveness. However, it is obviously hard for her to welcome his attempts as he have had an affair with Abby, and her actions towards him are detached. It is clear that the atmosphere in the house is blank and tense, by Millers constant use of questions and short replies.

In addition, the tension between John and Elizabeth Proctor is accentuated by Elizabeth's distrust and suspicion towards John, based on her knowledge on the affair between John and Abby. Elizabeth questions John's honesty...

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...Howdoes Arthur Millercreate drama and tension in Act 1 of ‘The Crucible’?
The Crucible is a play, which explores the witch- hunting hysteria that happened in Salem 1692. Miller uses this “organized mass-hysteria”[1] to comment on his own similar experience during the 1950s. Through “The Crucible”, Miller is able to draw an analogy between the hysteria of the Salem witch-trails and its modern parallel of the anti communist ‘witch-hunts’ which occurred due to the HUAC-House of un-American Committee, which were lead by Senator Joseph McCarthy; who with the help of the committee were “ruthlessly determined to hunt out communists as the Salem judges had been to hunt out witches”[2]. Miller used “The Crucible” to criticise this unmitigated evil, which led to so many innocent people being wrongly charged.
The play follows how fear of death, The Devil and the unknown causes people to submit to madness and how the sense of guilt which “generally it was a guilt resulting from their awareness that they were not as Rightist as people were supposed to be” [3] could cause them to lose all forms of their common sense and allow for insanity to overcome a whole community.
The abrupt opening of the play, with Betty Parris laid “inertly on a bed” and Reverend Parris knelt weeping and praying, instantly...

...English Controlled Assessment Draft: Conflict in the Crucible
The play I am studying for this essay is called “The Crucible” and I will be focusing on Act 1 of the book. The question I will be answering is what’s the most powerful type of conflict in the opening act of the crucible? The word conflict means a state of disharmony, opposition and or fighting. The conflict portrayed in the Crucible is often described as tools used to describe events in Millers time period. For example, witchcraft doesn’t exist in Salem yet that is the basis of the storyline of the play and many people die as a result of accusations over witchcraft. During the time Miller wrote this book, the cold war was happening and many people in America were accused of communism (including Miller himself), when they were accused they were routinely asked to give names of other communists which is the same as the ‘witches’ in Salem were asked, whether the devil “come-with another person” and many of these people turned out to not be communists in the first place same as the accused ‘witches’. So it seems that Miller uses the fact there were not any witches in Salem as a metaphor suggesting there were not any communists in America.
Miller conveys Putman as a source of conflict as a result of his rivalry for power with Parris. This is...

...were hanged and how another man over eighty years old was pressed to death with heavy stones for not confessing whilst dozens stayed in jail for months without trials. This was all McCarthyism that was still around when The Crucible was written and was a witch hunt looking for evil which focused on Communists that they found everywhere. This was howMiller portrayed how primitive the American 1950's were by relating it to McCarthyism in the 1690's.
The basic hysteria that swept through the witch hunt was also kept that looked as it could have been due to frontier war, economic conditions, personal jealousies and even teenage boredom that lead to mad accusations, trials and executions. These people were primitive in medicine and accused the devil of all illnesses or anything else that was an inconvenience. They were also puritans and older generations may have been bitter from having to move from other counties due to there rigid beliefs. All this happened between the spring and summer of 1692 in Salem, America due to congregational strife with plain back stabbing which caused life in fear.
Miller portrayed JohnProctors character as kind with strong opinions and principles. He also looked hard working and although he was deeply religious he chose not to go to church regularly because he thought the "Minister was not suitable". John was definitely...

...Isolation a great deal in the book. This becomes apparent very early on in the book as it is described as "some distance from any other house." This shows the reader prematurely that Warings is cut off from the village and possibly shows that the Hoopers are not very sociable and do not want to be disturbed. The fact that the house is only accommodating five people in the book even though it is such a grand house also represents remoteness. Warings creates problems though for Kingshaw as he is secluded from his friends. He is asked if he wants to go on holiday with his friends but Helena Kingshaw refuses on his behalf and tells Charles that he needs to spent more time with his new companion, much to his discontent.
Hooper's power is shown only to be apparent in Warings. He has complete control over Kingshaw when he is in the house but outside Warings, he loses his authority over Charles. For example when Charles runs away from Warings and Hooper follows him Kingshaw is seen to be more dominant that Hooper. However Kingshaw does not take advantage of this power due to him having a nice streak. Hooper has a nightmare and shouts out "Mummy,Mummy,Mummy." instead of taking advantage of this Charles comforts him and says " Come on, Hooper, its O.K" Kingshaw thinks that now Hooper's fears have been exposed things will be different but when the storm subsides it is apparent nothing has changed. Hooper's room in Warings was chosen by himself and is...

...The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller who was born on 17th October 1915 in New York City. The Crucible is based on a small group of teen girls in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts caught in an innocent conjuring of love potions to catch young men who are forced to tell lies that Satan had invaded them and forced them to participate in the rites and are then forced to name those involved. Thrown into the mix are greedy preachers and other major landowners trying to steal others' land and one young woman Abigail infatuated with a married man JohnProctor and was determined to get rid of his innocent wife Elizabeth. Arthur Miller wrote the events and the consequent trials where those who demanded their innocence were executed, those who would not name names were incarcerated and tortured, and those who admitted their guilt were immediately freed. In Act 3 of The Crucible the Trial scene is set in the Salem meeting house, this scene is so important because it is the most intense scene in the play because everything is revealed, and timing proves to be one of the most important factors. Proctor realizes that it is critical for Mary Warren to testify against Abigail before she loses her courage to do so. In addition, time is critical at this point in the play because individuals are being convicted continuously.
The Crucible is also based on McCarthyism this term describes the intense...

...Howdoes Sheriff build tension in Act2? Jodie Horton
Sheriff creates a lot of tension in Act2 in many different ways. He uses structure as a way to createtension including, stage directions, setting/staging and characters actions.
Tension is initially built in scene 1 by the use of Sheriffs structure, the men are waiting in the trenches for six days with nothing to do, to the audience the real boredom of the trenches and the men would be exposed. The men talk about everyday things such as the bacon they are eating for breakfast “look down straight on it from above, sir, you can see the bit o’ lean quite clear.”pg37 The start of the scene is boring but light hearted, it shows how the men have a sense of family between them, struggling to create a normality of everyday life. But however the structure and mood changes later on in the scene when Stanhope asks to censor Raleigh’s letter. “D’you understand an order? Give me that letter!”pg 48. The structure of this scene creates a lot of tension, because the audience will be calm and peacefully watching the men go about their daily life’s but then the scene abruptly changes into Stanhope’s actions of fury. It would be unexpected and shock the audience,...

...How and why does the relationship betweenJohn and ElizabethProctor change over the course of The Crucible?
In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, John and ElizabethProctor are introduced as a young, married couple whose relationship had a tense undercurrent. Their actions and reactions towards one another prove that they are at odds with each other.John and Elizabeth seem to be trying to smooth out the bumps in their relationship, but they only seem to succeed in driving themselves further apart. Now at a time when communication is crucial, John and Elizabeth learn the mistake they made is not getting to know each other better.
Act two is when Elizabeth is introduced properly in the crucible. Elizabeth and Proctor have what seems to be an awkward conversation with no sentence lasting more than a few words. The short sentences Miller uses to create the conversation betweenElizabeth and Proctor such as “What keeps you so late? It’s almost dark.” And “Aye, the farm is seeded. The boys asleep?” use lots of questions adding suspicion mainly seen in Elizabeth’s speech. This shows the reader there is a lack of honesty in their relationship because if they had complete...

...by J.B Priestly, based before World War One. Priestley proposes equality. The Inspector speaks about them all being the same. 'We are members of one body'. Priestley's use of the word 'body' shows that we are all connected and linked. Everyone needs to work together. The Inspector wants to teach the Birlings how to be more responsible and that money and class is not going to make you a better person and should change their attitudes towards the working class. An Inspector Calls' imitates Priestley's socialist views while outlining the trouble with Capitalism.
In 1912, rigid class and gender boundaries seemed to ensure that nothing would change. Yet by 1945, most of those class and gender divisions had been breached, Priestley wanted to make the most of these changes “The time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, when they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” As well as trying to show the people of 1912 that life was more important than such things as pride and money. J B Priestley writes that the older generation just cared about themselves and let other people get on with what they wanted. He then talks about the newer generation and how they are more caring about other people. Through his play, he encourages people to seize the opportunity the end of the war had given them to build a better, more caring society where everyone felt responsible for each other.
'An Inspector Calls' is a morality play in which...

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